Vault Shadows
by Vampiricknights
Summary: Kel, my OC, wanders the wastes following leads on an old friend from the vault, the lone wanderer. Will they ever meet or will a series of unfortunate decisions keep him too far behind?
1. 1 Did She?

Vault Shadows

Chapter 1: Did She?

Rain slips from the clouds and trickles down onto the makeshift tin roof the young adult has made for himself weeks ago, resembling more of an unfinished building rather than opposed to a common shanty hut any other "homeless" individual in the wastes. A drop from the freshly formed storm finds its way through a hole in the tin roof above the slumbering man, landing just under his eye mimicking a tear as it rolling down his cheek. The Man slowly wakes the cracking sound of distant thunder while wiping away the rain drop, thinking he was crying in his sleep. He lets out a light yawn as he reaches into his rugged backpack, not for food, but for his detached Pip Boy 3000. "Good Morning Mr. Kel Merrick, Advisory: Reattach Pip Boy For Better Read Out On Bio-metrics" scrolls along the bottom of the screen. Staring at the device and scars on his left arm cause his brain to go back to a time when he did not fully understand the full value of the safety in the life he had as an O'Brian in vault 101, but all he could think about was wanting out. Lightning flashes.

* * *

An arc of electricity jumps from the arc scaring the young Kel O'Brian who had just sneaked into the reactor room to be alone, away from the pressure of his father and away from those Tunnel Snakes, luckily today they weren't looking to bully Kel and they were out for a girl named Alex and the Overseer's daughter Amata, as they usually are. Kel picks himself up and begins to wander the lower level near James' and Jonas' work space.

"Jonas, come here. I have to ask you something." James calls his longtime friend over to him.

"Sure thing James, what is it you need?" Jonas begins to inquire

"I've been looking into finding a way back out there, and I need to know if you would help me manage that? It's important that this stays between us." James continues

"James, are you sure that is a sma-"

"I need to continue my work on Project: Purity and I can't get anything else done here Jonas, but there is still hope for the world out there. You don't have to come out, I just need you to simulate a power surge in order to keep the alarm from going off when I open the vault door..."

Before Kel hears the rest, a light goes off in his mind on how to get out of this giant coffin. Having spent so much of his alone time around the reactor, he knows a certain way to cause a blackout at a certain time. He's made up his mind, he'll escape tonight before the G.O.A.T. the next day. Before he has a job and anyone misses him, he thinks to himself.

That night, Kel set up his timer on the reactor and found a spare key to the overseer's office, which he knows there is a secret way out of the vault under the desk. "The blackout should last 5 minutes giving me more than enough time" he says to himself under his breath to give him that boost of confidence to go through with his great escape. He pulls out a detonator for an explosive that he had modified to disrupt the reactor for only 5 minutes, he kisses it right before he pushes the button. All the light power down after he presses it signifying it worked and as quick as he can operate the door manually, he gets it open just enough for him to get out and close it while making the least amount of noise as possible. The first thing he feels is the warm night breeze filled with a familiar tingle of radiation, no more than the reactor room he was so fond of. Adrenaline pumping, his mind racing, 'what should I do next? Pip Boy needs to come off'. Kel grabs a combat knife he had taken from the armory while raiding it for the detonator. He breathes out heavily trying to focus and to not mess up and cut himself. The combat knife as if wanting to affirm Kel of his worries and slips right off the cuff and into his arm gashing it open. Prepared for the worst, he pulls out one of his stimpak he had nicked from the lab and sits it near his forearm for easy access once he separates from the Pip Boy. Wiping his blood off the blade he goes back to breaking the clip off to fully free himself, and with a loud crack the Pip Boy springs free and he immediately injects himself with the stimpak, repairing the gash and leaving a fresh scar across his wrist, white as snow after the stimpak made quick work of the deep wound.

* * *

A bright, white flash of lightning crashes into a nearby skeleton of what was once a thriving tree before the Great War. Kel breathes heavy and shakes off the memories of what once was and pulls himself to reality by starting his daily rituals, maintaining what hygiene he can while listening to a radio station a ghoul was talking about in the nearby settlement, Megaton.

The dulcet toned DJ begins his session the same everyday with minor changes from day-to-day, and today Kel could hear that the DJ had some interesting news just off the springiness in his words "Hello Capital Wasteland! It's Three Dog awoooo! And you're listening to Galaxy News Radio, the only radio station in the Wasteland that isn't Enclave propaganda bullshit! Now, to me, the weather report; raining bullets, with a chance of decapitation!" Other than how the Enclave went about their cruel ways, Kel didn't really have a solid opinion like Three Dog; however, he did love the dark humor the DJ had.

"Now listen up Children; remember our old pal James? Well turns out he's not the only one that crawled out of Vault 101. We had a second one come out, and, get this, she's his fucking daughter! Crazy, I know; but there's no way I could make this shit up myself!" Kel's Facial features lightened at the prospect of another vault dweller getting out, but then his expression sank slowly at the thought of who had escaped, "Alex, oh no" he had thought to himself afraid that she would be snatched by raiders due to unfamiliarity with what the world has become and now any ape with a radio and listens to GNR knows there is fresh meat running around asking anyone for help.

"Now we had some people that spotted her making her way out of the Vault. She disappeared for a while after that, but then she resurfaced in Megaton. I don't know where she went off to for so long, or what happened to her, but listen. The kid's likely gone through a lot, and there's no doubt in my mind that she's looking for her dad."

"I don't know much about her, or what she looks like, but you'll recognize a vault dweller when you see one. If you see her, try to help her out. The kid needs to find her dad; and James if you're listening, your kid needs you..."

Kel's heart feels to have fell from his ribs right into his stomach at the thought of what could've happened to her while she went missing. The thought of having not been there for her ate at his conscious and then it hits him. She had been the new girl that everyone around Megaton had been speaking about a few days back, he had missed her, she was already there and off somewhere else. He cursed himself for not being more vigilant in the area and for removing the Pip Boy so that maybe someone could have directed her to him, thinking maybe Kel was someone who knew where her dad could've gone.

He shook the thoughts, of what could have been, from his head and zipped his main piece of his wardrobe, a self-made, makeshift stealth suit complete with a grey eye visor that tinted his vision a slight red; however, only retaining vision in his right eye. The young adult swept his lengthy, disheveled hair back while slipping his near wetsuitesque mask on his head before covering his wetsuit and himself with a rugged and worn cowl and robe.

While the irradiated rain storm passes he collects himself and his two weapons of choice after slinging his small bag of supplies on his back but under his rugged cape-like robe. Typically maintaining a fair distance from any confrontations, choosing to end one before it begins, his primary choice is a rifle he found through some of his journey's through the wastes in a shack overlooking the Rockbreaker's Last Gas station, he found a note describing it as the Victory Rifle and the name stuck since it has yet to let him down, and for backup just in case someone gets too close for his comfort he keeps a silenced 10 mm pistol holstered to his right thigh.

The seemingly military armed man, as soon as the storm passes, tears down the lean-to he was asleep under the past night. Kel looks at a nearby group of raiders off to the East and before he can make his moves away from the group, Kel notices two of the raiders point at him and the group of five start for the man. Without hesitation, once he knew he was spotted, he aims down his scope while he still out-ranged the raiders, shoots and takes down one the less armored raiders in a dark pink mist, then starts running to the west into a scrapyard where he knew of a couple and their dog had lived, he had hoped they would manage to hide or defend themselves from the now four-man group raiders.

Bullets zip and ricochet through the scrapyard, Kel looks over at the dog matching his speed "DOGMEAT, HIDE!" Kel yells at the animal he had grown fond of in his visits to the scrapyard. Listening as if Kel was his owner, bolts to his actual owner's house; unfortunately, providing an unwanted distraction for the young adult as the group that had grown from the four that the man had originally been chased by to now eight who had followed the dog's path after one raider yells "Hey, this dog might lead us to him!". Not even splitting up and following blindly the eight raiders found their way to the shack that Dogmeat and his two owners had made their home. A loud scream from the home had stopped the man in his tracks, causing him to miss details of a person running into the scrapyard either to join in the massacre or to their deaths. A tear falls from his cheek and hits his eye visor and snaps him out of his trance of thought, _t_ _here is nothing you can do now, you are one man, if you fought every fight you'd end up dead... alone. Run, Live, Find Her._ The young man tells himself to start for Paradise Falls, but first he set his sights on a safe place to the south, Agatha's House.

Kel looks at the rickety bridge, _I fucking hate this bridge_ , he thinks to himself as he crosses the old bridge that hasn't been fixed since Agatha's husband passed. Once he gets to the door, the young man knocks his 'secret' knock that he uses at places he deems safe for him. _knock knockity knock knock knock._ "It's me" the man says as he attaches his rifle to his bag while simultaneously removing his mask and visor.

"Come in, dear!" The old woman says aloud as if greeting a grandson or old friend "I haven't seen you in a while," she states as Kel enters her little shack, "What have you been up to, staying out of trouble?" her tone genuine and relaxing to the ear.

"You know me, poking my head where it doesn't belong," he says chuckling and pointing at the three jagged scars running from the right of his chin across his face to the back of the left side of his head, the cause for his unseeing, white eye. "The usual, have the caravans stopped by yet?"

Agatha sends a look to Kel as if scolding him for his light joking about his scars "I really wish you listened when I said to stay away from those Devil Lizards out by that grotto, and as a matter of fact they haven't." she says handing him a bag of caps that was just enough to give to the caravan for her usual shipment "mind going and collecting it for me? these bones aren't getting any younger." she gives a dusty laugh as she begins to head for the kitchen to get her usual meal for the man who used to frequent her and her husband, a Nuka-Cola Quantum Kel kept there to keep cool in the fridge and a medium sized mirelurk cake.

The man smiles and sets the bag of caps near the H.A.M. radio, "This shipment is on me, and when are you going to let me fix that bridge? It scares the caravans from getting closer."

"Never. You do understand that it scares raiders away too? It looks like too much work just to kill an old lady. So, I'll tell you when to repair and how much to repair when need be." she scold him as if they had this conversation once before.

He puts his hands up in defeat "You win. I'm gonna shut up and get those supplies." Kel, smiles for once, one of the rarest commodities in this world he has come to know, as he makes his way back across the bridge with his bag of caps that was a little heavier than the one Agatha had handed him. _For_ _their_ _years of kindness, hopefully to encourage further years of kindness._ Kel waves at the oncoming caravan lead by the merchant Crazy Wolfgang.

"It's nice what you do for this old lady, kid." the middle-aged man says to the younger male; however, looking at them you'd think the younger was the more experienced of the two. "Not a lot of kindness out here these days, I'm glad to see there is still some humanity out there."

"Without you guys, there wouldn't be an old lady here for help," Kel states while trading the caps for the common shipment of goods, "Be sure to share what extra is in there with the others, let them know just how much what you guys do means not only for Agatha, but for me." Kel smiles, a memory of how Agatha and he met, a few years back when Kel had fallen ill to rad poisoning and the elderly couple taking him in and nursing him back to health. "Oh, and keep an eye out for me in case you see a lady around my age, with black hair, and the greenest eyes you'll ever see. The vault dweller that Three Dog just announced as turning back up."

The Older merchant gives an assuming look "Sure I'll keep my eyes peeled for your little crush, but if I find out anything it'll have to cost you, remember our saying 'nothing is free, except death and radiation'."

Kel rolls his eyes and smirks "You know I'm good, Wolf," he says as he starts back over the bridge, waving without looking back at the merchant and the guards. As he enters the house, Alex fresh on his mind, "Agatha, have you, by chance, heard any rumors about that vault girl before she went missing?" He asks with a glimmer of hope that this lady in constant contact with caravans may know something, some clue.

Agatha gives her young guest a somber look as she lifts her gaze from her tea cup, "Your little friend, that vault dweller, before she turned up again, was last seen being dragged by some raiders to the Springvale School..." the words seemed to burn Kel's heart, a feeling he would not soon forget, at the thought of one of the only people he could possibly befriend. Agatha continues to add gas to the fire burning his heart "When she did turn back up, they said, she looked worse for ware, changed, not innocent like you'd imagine." Kel's mind races fueled by rage and concern, _Did She?_


	2. Chapter 2: A Bump in the Path

Vault Shadows

Chapter 2: A Bump in the Path

The sun pierces through the window, finding respite upon the scarred face of the young man who has stayed the night at Agatha's house. Kel groans a long and painfully while the sun begins tearing him from his peaceful slumber, which he values near as much as a stimpak or an ice-cold Nuka-Cola Quantum. He pulls himself up from the spare bed and begins to get dressed in his only attire, and before he gets fully dressed in his mind he gets mentally prepared for the journey that, over dinner, he has made his mind up on undertaking. Looking over his detached Pip Boy, _Germantown is a no_ , he thinks to himself recounting on how the town has become a cesspool filled to the brim with Super Mutants. They were only the beginning of his problems with the destination being nearly as revolting as the last, Paradise Falls. A place where slavers have decided to take roots and is the hub of the slave trade in the Capitol Wastes, run by the infamous Eulogy Jones. If there was a chance Alex could be there though, Kel would go, if not for her at the very least maybe some information, raiders have been common patrons to The Falls, whether it be selling or buying slaves and maybe after resurfacing she was taken again and sold to the highest bid.

With a sigh filled with both anticipation and anxiety for the coming venture he turns to the elder, "I need you to hold onto a few things, Agatha. Where I'm going to is full of liars, cheats, and thieves."

"Anything, that locker has more than enough room since…" she holds her words, clearly pained at the loss of her partner, though not fresh memories, still ones that sting.

Kel rubs the old lady's shoulder reassuringly "Thank you, Agatha. I'll return I promise and with more, fresh mirelurk meat for those delicious cakes" he says trying to cheer her up, successfully to his surprise. After giving Agatha a genuine smile and a hug, he organizes his pack, his rifle, and pistol into the locker, the only items other than his stealth suit and cowl that he takes are a few stimpak, a combat knife, and two emergency stealth boys to make a great escape if need be. He turns to Agatha, "I keep my promises, don't I?" he grins

She looks at him, clearly putting his scars across his face on trial, "except when it involves those Devil Lizards that you promised to stay away from!" She scolds the young man, followed by a soft chuckle, "just be sure to actually follow your word and get back here in one piece, I don't need to mourn two people." Her tone a clear guise as to her true feelings of grief and worry.

With those words, Kel makes his way to the door, slipping on his eye visor and mask while lifting his cowl. The door opens, light washing over the black-clad man making his way back across the bridge giving one glance back to the old lady's house with a thought of reassurance that one day he'll be back soon and that she'll be safe until he makes it back. He exhales long and heavy, turning towards his destination on detached Pip Boy, "Paradise Falls" _the land of gluttony and filth_.

The young man had only dared get near one time prior to his current venture to the well disguised slave pit, back when he still had sight in his left eye. As soon as he got near a group of slaves and slavers walking in a line towards the entrance, a blue circular pulse of energy was shot from an odd-looking weapon that resembled a television rather than a weapon. The burst of energy had been slow, much to Kel's surprise, and he easily ducked behind a rock before making his escape from the area, not wanting to figure out what that pulse of energy would do to him.

Kel continued on his path, drawing his combat knife to the sound of pattering insect feet across the rocks ahead. _To small to be a giant radscorpion, but this is still going to suck_. He thought to himself as he readied himself to pounce and cut off the poisonous stinger making his fight to be, more in his favor. His quick reflexes after his jump were enough for the one he had been expecting; however, there had been a small bed of scorpions, three, he counted after taking down the closest. Strategically the man steps on the carapace of the irradiated scorpions to keep them down as he swiftly dispatches the dog-sized arachnids' stingers, with all four taken to give him the clear upper hand he. The younger male nearly laughed in amusement as he began to pick up the scorpions by their claws to expose their softer under bellies, making his job nearly too easy. Without a lot of space on his person instead of carrying around the stingers for future use, he spreads the poison across his blade, _hopefully this will come in handy_.

Scoffing off the slight annoyance with the irradiated pests, Kel reorients himself and reminds himself to make a southward maneuver to stay out of the line of sight of the Super Mutant stronghold of Germantown. Gravel and dirt crunch lightly under his padded feet as he follows a path just under the side of Germantown where the town was separated from the Wastes by a rocky drop off. Kel stopped in his tracks to listen to his surroundings and make sure he was still hidden from anyone, or thing, nearby. Deciding he heard nothing, the naïve man begins to head around a corner of the path and is met with a small group of raiders that, for some reason, were venturing way to close to the Super Mutant run city than Kel has ever known them to. Bumping into one of the raiders Kel, in one seemingly lightning quick motion, draws his blade and slits the raider's throat and pushing him into the other 2 causing them to fall down the side of the hill, allowing him to double back and hide behind the corner just as the now pair of raiders began firing upon the last position he had been standing. Kel listens to the sounds of the ricocheting bullets, noticing one of them stopped firing to try and aid their fallen comrade, to no avail, _they aren't going to let up, not with one of theirs dead_. He thinks and without hesitation doubles back in a sprint, but instead of heading down the way he came, ventures uphill without concern of what could be beyond the rocks ahead. Greeting the fleeing man's shaky, adrenaline filled vision was a seven-foot-tall mutant wielding nothing but a large plank of wood with nails littering the surface. The hulking mass of radiation and muscle instinctively swings the large plank, placing the thinner side of the board with an astoundingly accurate strike to the man's temple; knocking him straight to the ground with a sickening thud of unconsciousness.

Slowly Kel pulls himself to consciousness, stirring slightly as he is being drug through the dirt. He looks at his captor, the large mutant with a seemingly perfectly proportioned nail board for the man-turned-beast. The barely conscious Kel takes in his surroundings, an overly complicated fenced entrance to a building surrounded by fencing and viscera filled bags, no doubt from prior victims. His mind scrambles as he thinks of the items on his person, caps, roughly three thousand, that the mutant didn't take for they had no use for caps, they just took what they wanted and killed what they didn't. _My combat knife_ , Kel notes as looks his over captor whilst being drug through now blood-soaked earth, trying to spot the poisoned blade. Nothing. The mutant must have missed it when grabbing the man from the ground, leaving it behind in the rocks.

The mutant grunted as he drags the fresh meat into the ground level cells, "We're gonna fatten you up swine!" His words rolling off the tongue as though he had said them hundreds of prior victims claimed by this vile headquarters of Super Mutants. "Then when you fat and slow, we kill and eat you," the mutant finishes expositing information on what they have been up to in their facility of putrid, irradiated beings.

Kel coughs as his back slams into the wall of the tiny cell and has barely enough time to stand as the mutant shuts the cell, knowing it would be a waste of time and energy, Kel refrains from yelling or getting belligerent. The young, scarred man goes over his current belongings, other than his knife, nothing was out of place. After examining himself, he looks around the other cells and finds only one other resident to the small cell block, a short, adolescent male, and a young African-American female sporting red overalls, glasses and an iconic red bandana. "what are your names? How did you guys wind up here?" he asks trying to get his mind away from his natural urge to try and break the door down and run.

"I'm Shorty, and my friend in the cell next to me is Red. Don't ask how we got our names, that much should be obvious just by looing at us," the young boy says with mild irritation as though he had faced years of ridicule and teasing over his name.

Red takes over the conversation "Shorty and I are from a settlement not to far from here, Big Town. Have you heard of it?" she asks rhetorically and not even letting him answer, "We were caught while trying to scavenge for more supplies and got jumped by these mutants..."

The scarred man grins as he thinks to himself of ways he can get out of this situation while the red clad lady continues to ramble on the two's past; from details about Little Lamplight, to how they eventually felt fine with their transition to a _Mungo_ when the were forced to move to Big Town.

…

A week passes like a blur, seemingly exhausted and starved from having done nothing more than reject the strange meat that the mutants tried to force feed them and ready themselves for some sort of escape. While all three lay there feeling near drained just from looking at their captors coming to examine them with a look that the trio had not seen over the span of their seven prior days of captivity, a look of hunger and anticipation. The mutants gather around Shorty's cell door, "You, Puny, coming to basement," they say aggressive and ready to feast on the youngest prisoner's flesh.

Shorty screams "don't let me be eaten by these things, Red!" his voice being muffle as he had been dragged down into the basement.

A few minutes pass and a light bulb goes off in his head, "Hey, Red," he says trying to get her attention, with the only thing he could think to call her being _Red_.

The girl, even younger than Kel, sniffles and wipes away a fresh tear, "what do you want Mungo?"

Kel shakes off the odd name that he had just been called "what's wrong? And do you know anyway to get out of here?"

"These cells' locks are old and easy to pick, but what's the point? They'll kill you as soon as you get out… that's what they did to shorty," Red says with a choked tone, "I can still hear him in the basement through this vent but it won't be long until they…"

Kel stops her and without thinking of the repercussions "Could you two get out if I provide a distraction?"

A glimmer of hope shines on Red's face "yes probably, but the only way I could think of you causing a good enough distraction is if you went to the second floor and start tripping mines on your way out of one of the side doors that is exposed to the outside," the words seemingly spat out as fast as she could to the stranger.

"Just promise me, that you'll be safe" he chokes on his words almost wishing that he just stayed estrange from the girl and her friend. Kel sighed to himself and began to pick the lock to his cell that was extremely easier than any other lock the man has encountered, he scoffs, _the old-world locks really were bad_. With a swift click the cell door frees itself from the locking mechanism and without thinking Kel gets to work on Red's door, with Kel being in front of the lock it goes easier. "When you hear the explosions and the Supers running up, save your friend and get out," Kel explains to the woman.

To make his task of getting to the second floor easier, Kel pops on one of the two stealth boys and slips past the two mutants by the stairwell. The young male looks around and disarms a frag mine, quickly rearming it before tossing it at the pair of mutants that inhabited the second floor, taking one of each of their robust legs with the explosion. While still cloaked by the stealth boy, Kel runs and repeats the action with another frag mine, taking out the fallen pair, silencing their screams of agony. He grins, feeling a rush from taking out the mutants, but doesn't dwell on his emotions, proceeding to trigger with pieces of broken tile from the ruined floor.

Loud thumping sounds of Super Mutant feet sound from the stairwell, seemingly ferocious in intent. Kel hears a feint sound, but a sound that could not be misplaced as any other sound, the creak of the cell door that held Red. The signal, for Kel, meant all the mutants they knew that were in the building were on the chase for the cloaked escapist, he gives a winning smile unseen just before the cloaking mechanism fades and they notice him just as he throws himself through the weak, wooden door leading to the outside.

Expecting there to be solid ground for him to land, Kel's expression under his mask and visor turns to that of shock and imminent danger as he makes it through the door and past what would have been a floor if not for that portion of the building had long since collapsed. _Oh fuck_ , he thinks to himself as he crashes into the rubble that lay on the exposed first floor, landing on his spine releasing all the air from his lungs leaving him gasping in pain. The scarred man drags himself to his feet finally catching his breath as the green men break the windows raining lead upon where the man had landed. Bullets litter the ruins as Kel begins to dart from the vicinity, one of the shoddily aimed projectiles met with the man's calf causing him to wince in pain; however, without stopping his momentum towards his point of captivity to reclaim his poison laced combat knife. Reaching the path that he was caught on, Kel looks back to the fortified police headquarters where he was captive for eight days, to ease his conscious two bodies leave the building's makeshift gates, one visibly dressed in red overalls and the other one short even from that distance. Retrieving his knife, Kel replaces the used stealth boy with the fresh one but keeps the old one to repair for future use; before activating the newly equipped stealth boy, the man sets his sights on the fleeing pair, heading to their place the call home, _Big Town_.

The road to their home was surprisingly short and without interference from the pair of raiders from a week prior, or any of the dangers of the Wastes. As if he had just popped into the duo's existence, Kel's stealth boy fades and he clears his throat letting them know of his presence and startling them right as they reach a bridge, seemingly the only entrance to the settlement known as Big Town. "Have you been following us this entire time?" Red asks in a startled yet relieved tone knowing Kel would have been there if they were in need of his protection on the way to the town. "Wait, you're bleeding! Follow me and I'll get you fixed right up."

Without so much as a warning, Red began dragging Kel to her clinic where she had taken care of the citizens of the rugged settlement, the past year or so since she had been cast out from Little Lamplight. The trio were welcomed by, what Kel could surmise as being everyone who was staying there. Being led to a cot within the house-turned-clinic, taking his mask from his head he notes a man in visible discomfort with some sort of unknown ailment.

"That's Timebomb. We don't know what's wrong with him and we don't know what to do to help. No doubt you've noticed the rest of the settlers; Bittercup, Dusty, Flash, Kimba, and Pappy," after listing their names Red goes on giving descriptions of the inhabitants.

"Get me fixed up, and I'll look at Timebomb, I've learned a few things in my years out here." Kel says, laying on the cot, blood still making its way out of his calf. A shrill squeak of the wooden door to the entrance of the clinic sounds as a strawberry-blonde walks in seemingly to investigate the newcomer being helped by Red.

The lady coughs a fake attention-grabbing cough, "Red I think I might be sick" the gingery blonde-haired woman tries to get the attention of the doctor and the current patients

"Not now, Bittercup. I have to patch this guy up, I owe him, he saved Shorty and me," the lady steers herself to the side of the cot placing her equipment beside the injured Kel, pulling up his trouser leg fully exposing the gunshot wound. Red shoves a cloth into Kel's agape jaw before dousing the wound in the calf with vodka to sterilize the area before the minor operation, "you're a lucky one, the bullet went straight through, no complications," she says with hope in her eyes, as if this was one of the most intense thing she has had to since she became the doctor of Big Town, stitch up a simple gunshot.

The girl who had tried to steal the spotlight in the clinic over a fake cough, "where did you find this white-eyed man out in these parts?" She states with obvious intent to get his attention. "Finally, someone who might not judge me for having a thing for danger."

"He found us actually," Red makes it clear that the scarred man had been the one to save them from their situation with the super mutants in Germantown. "we were trapped there for eight days and when they had taken Shorty, Kel here went out of his way to distract all the Muties, letting us manage our own escape."

"Ooo a hero" her tone oriented more in a compassionate, wanting way. This tone is one Kel has yet to hear from anyone in all the Wastes, disturbing him in a way that he had not even imagined. Someone, that hungry for a relationship, sexual or not, in times like this had been simply foreign to the man, only a visage of disgust could be seen amongst the scarred face; however, the look of disgust seemed to go right over the lady's radar, clearly not caring about anything other than the prospect of 'getting with' the man laying before her on the cot.

"I think I should get to helping, uhhh, Timewarp, Timestamp…. Fuck, Timebomb!" Kel stammers as he hobbles away from the caught and goes to the man in agonizing pain. "I don't have any of my tools to help," Kel states after giving the young male a lengthy examination while trying to avoid any contact with that strange girl, "if you treat him with buffout, psycho and stimpak you might be able to hold out until I get back or someone else rolls along with the capabilities. I should only be about three weeks to a month… I have to find someone," he finally lets Red know anything about him after their eight days of being trapped together with not so much as an ounce of backstory behind the mysterious, scarred and stealthily dressed individual.

"Kel," Red stops the man from getting up and gearing up to restart his stalled journey to Paradise Falls, "you can't just leave us here without so much as some lessons in self-defense, what if the Supers come back for a vengeance and try to kill all of us?"

Kel bites his tongues wishing he could just walk away, just forget about these settlers and not feel this urge to help them, but his internal war subsides, the victor being the inherent good in him. "Fine, but I'm only going to give you the basic run down of how to defend this place, head outside and call everyone out by the bridge," a sigh heaved its weight from his lips as he stood only to get pushed back down by the strange girl, dying for attention.

"I don't want you to leave, ok? Just stay here, be with me and protect us, I know you want to. I can tell by how you have to think about things," she says beginning to straddle the man to keep him from leaving. "You aren't going anywhere until you tell me you are going to stay."

Kel's mind races, thinking of anyway to get out of this situation, _Words? No. Kill her? No. Wait! The poison on my knife!_ Kel finds his answer with as quick as the thought came, the action followed in swift succession, first cupping her mouth, pushing her to the cot and driving the blade into her thin shoulder slipping the poison into her veins, sending the strawberry-blonde lady into a state of temporary paralysis. He looks down on the girl that he had just poisoned with the sting of his blade, heart pounding in excitement, "I could get used to that," the man says aloud to himself as if relishing in the moment. Snapping out of the brief trance of pleasure, he makes his way to the awaiting crowd on their lesson on basic defense.

…

With his deed done and a practice run displayed to his satisfaction the helpful man that had come to the aid of the town when he could have just walked away, said his goodbyes and collected his things for the road ahead. Not a word was spoken to the men and women of Big Town after Kel had slipped his mask and visor on, the way he wished it had been from the start, just a man passing through, as it had been for years. Reaching the entrance of the bridge the all grey suited man pointed himself in his original destination and made is first step towards finding a piece of his past.


	3. Chapter 3: Chasing Shadows

Vault Shadows

Chapter 3: Chasing Shadows

 _Not to far now_. The grey-clad man recited in his mind once he reached the halfway point between Big Town and the repulsive destination, Paradise Falls. His eyes drift side to side, coming onto a shallow hill, just enough to shield his vision from the horizon. Padded feet made their way up to the crest of the hill only followed by a muffled crunch that only those too close for the owner of the feet's comfort could hear, all the while the giant iconic plaster man wearing red and white checkered overalls and wielding a proportional ice-cream cone creeps in sight. Kel sighs in relief, his chest relaxing, thinking he is about to find the person who he felt almost responsible to help and assure her safety, Alex. This new-found sense of relaxation is followed by him relieving himself of the mask that was snug from neck to head, a slight breeze taking the place over his skin and disheveled hair furthering that feeling of relaxation. He lets out another sigh resembling more of a sigh of imminent pain and annoyance, as he starts to hide the mask within his robe like cowl. Making his way to the entrance of the slaver encampment, he knows that hiding his face wouldn't help him here, recalling his time with the slavers.

"No fucking way!" The slaver guard exclaims as the ghostly site approaches through the heat waves "Kel the Ghost Killer?! You got some fucking nerve coming here! Eulogy would- ".

"Would do nothing," Kel gives the guard a look of stern disapproval as if catching the guard lying, "you do know why he hasn't sent anyone to find me?"

"Because you hide to well," the guard's voice begins to shake under the pressure of the man who until today was no more than a myth to the guard and his friends.

The myth-turned-reality squints at the greenhorn slaver, "try again." Kel's tone turns to one of a man who is waiting for a reason to strike.

"Y-y-you," the guard stumbles over his words begging for the interaction between the two men to be over. As if on cue the scarred individual starts to walk through the initial gate into the settlement but is interrupted by the guard who manages to muster just enough confidence to stop the man from entering. "Wait, Eulogy has a new policy on gaining entry," the urge for Kel to interrupt the man again is held back and lets him finish, "you need to enslave someone to be allowed in."

Kel takes his time getting into the personal space of the guard and gestures for him to hand over a collar, the unsuspecting guard forgetting the basic rule to not trust a stranger in the wastes, hands a newly fashioned collar. Without so much as a blink of hesitation the ghostly man kicks the slaver on the inside of the knee and applying the collar to the neck of the slaver, "there, now come on, there's a distance limit on this model, right?" Kel grins as the guard, visibly crying, stumbles over his own feet rather than his words this time.

The more veteran slavers watch the spectacle not interrupting the quiet man's stride, some giving a few laughs at the greenhorn's predicament. "Hey, Carolina, Ymir, Cutter," Kel lists off the names of some of the veterans that he once knew all to well, not in the traditional sense as a friend knowing a friend and saying hello after not seeing one another after a long time, but more like that of a friendly competitor in some game of cat and mouse where both sides think they are the cat.

Looking around, Kel can tell that they have seen better times since his last visit to this grotesque slaver den, nearly everything having been broken either from wear and tear from the irradiated world or from the near-barbarian slavers fighting over who gets credit for what slaves. The dirt floor of the open bar on the way to Eulogy's more like mud-cocktail, soaked with different liquors from what it would seem as the chaos that caused all the wreckage in the settlement. Shaking his head, Kel takes the thought of this place being run down out of his mind, his hair falling to the unscarred right side of his face.

Getting to the door of Eulogy's place the outside guard nods and moves out of the way for the man and his 'slave'. The captured guard stops the menacing figure that he has been shadowing in shame, "please, man I beg you, I'll be ridiculed by everyone for the rest of my life if you bring me in front of Eulogy like this!" The sound of the depravity in the voice of the slaver mimicking a symphony for the man leading the embodiment of cowardice.

"You think Eulogy or any of these fucks gave one thought as to whether or not to spare me from experiencing humility? No, and guess what, they never will, I had them running with their tails between their legs every time they came for me! Just like you now." The scarred man grinning sinisterly over just putting a slaver in the shoes of his captors, makes his way while dragging the other man by the explosive collar, a bleeping light indicate slight tampering to the collar.

"Eulogy!" Kel walks the 'slave' up the stair, kicking in his left leg, dropping him to the creaky wooden floor. "I got something for you in exchange for some important information!"

The charismatic, pig of a man looks up from his desk where he had been counting a bag of what seemed to have been two thousand caps, "Willy… What the fuck?" Eulogy's focus shifts from the slaver under his command to the man he had felt was his Moby to his Ahab, "Now, now, now, what do we have here?" The tone of his voice displaying a clear sense of accomplishment as if Kel had not just walked into the settlement with little to no confrontation from anyone.

The scarred man looks around noticing that one of the main slaves was missing, _Clover_ , the name came in an instant. Kel lets out some bottled anger for the man in front of him by punching the collared guard in the temple, putting him down and out. "He'll be fine, what happened to Clover?" Kel asks expecting someone like Tenpenny or some other big-wig to have come by for her.

"Is that what you came all the way here from your hole in the ground to discuss? I never would've pegged you for a man with a heart. If you must know, that whore from the vault came in here with a temper and nearly took all of us down, but for some reason she stopped and just gave up two thousand caps for the whore! Bitch was only worth a bullet." Eulogy ends his rant trying not to let the side of him that cared about Clover out for anyone to see.

Kel allows the comments to slip by without any repercussions for the head slaver, "Aside from your rude ass comments, did you say, 'that whore from the vault'? Are you sure it was the girl on the radio?"

"How could I mistake her for anyone else? Pip Boy, leather jacket with a snake, the blackest hair in the wastes, eyes like emeralds, and scarred more than yourself." Eulogy says with a sigh, rattling off the appearance that Three Dog liked to broadcast.

The foreboding man takes himself aback with the news of Alex being menacing and tough enough to not only scare Eulogy, but the entire settlement. _What happened to her, is she ok? What could have happened to the innocent, trusting girl he once knew?_ "Alright, Eulogy, enough messing around. Where did she go? If you know you better tell me or else I'll finish what that girl started," Kel says through gritted teeth, a sense of urgency surrounding his words.

"Look, Kel, I'm gonna level with you, I have no fucking idea where she could be, she was here this morning and that's why everything here is a mess. She was headed South from here with Clover," Eulogy's usual confidence and charisma leaving him as he speaks. "I don't want to know why you're looking for this woman or how you know her, but I can assure you, whoever you're expecting isn't who you're gonna meet."

Kel takes the news with more than a grain of salt, "we'll see." With that close, Kel's muscles tense as he throws the switch for the collar on the knocked-out slaver, making his way to the door.

Reaching the entrance to the encampment, raw emotion takes over Kel's body pulling him to the ground while letting a yell of anguish and anger fly from his throat, "Fuuuuuuck!" Rage fills the vision of his right eye, red being the main theme of the newly fabricated world, the man grips the handle of his combat knife, looking for the nearest living organism to him.

 _Sniff sniff_ , a mole-rat brood mother examines her pups and lover before the make there way to a nearby patch of green to eat before calling it a day and finding their hole they call home. While eating the family hears nothing to peak their interest except the feint sound of the grounding crunching with heavy steps; unfortunately, their eyesight was practically nominal and could not prepare them for what was to come next.

The grey clothing covered chest rises and falls with the relief of physical and mental exertion, blood soaking the knife still tightly gripped within the palm of his right hand, the crimson scene of a massacred mole-rat family stained the ground, one mole-rat still squirming, one of the pups trying to make a getaway. The still angered man walks over the pup, pinning it down in a way it can not bite the man. The expression on the man's face turning deadpan as he wraps his free hand around the rough, leathery skin of the pup, small squeaks escaping the desperate animal. Kel looks away from the rat and the massacre as he tightens his grip until, _SNAP,_ and then silence. The man wipes a tear forming from his good eye and shakes away his emotions, recouping and orienting himself back in the direction of Agatha's House.

Reapplying the mask, Kel assures himself that he won't run from a situation only to get caught like he did in Germantown. _No more running like a coward, no more expecting the easy way to work, no more!_ The only thing the man retained from the massacre being the heavy steps as he dredges his way across the wastes, only expressing minimal stealth only due to the fact of his missing equipment he left at Agatha's. Working around some rocks Kel sees the rickety bridge leading to the old musician's house, stopping himself he grabs the last purified water in his possession and sits atop a rock. Between sips, the water is splashed in the man's face to recompose himself and to wash any blood from his hands and face, the cool water being the only good thing he's experienced in the past ten days aside from humiliating that slaver in front of all his peers. Kel lays on the jagged rock, soaking in what sunlight was left in the sky as the moon began to take the place of the sun, the air cooling in the familiar area, memories of his time in the vault back when things were easier and the women he was chasing was as he remembered, coming and going along with the hope that both Eulogy and Three Dog have everything all wrong with either Alex still safe within the walls of the vault or the person on the broadcasts had not been Alex; however, another escaped vault dweller that changed their appearance in the guise of Alex.

Kel traces his rough, dry, scarred hands along the surface of the even rougher, cold stone he was laying upon, seemingly writing the emotions he had felt through the day upon the rock. He listens carefully, a high pitch sound coming from Agatha's luring his attention to the shack, _is she? No way she could be._ The sounds emanating from the shack pick up the man from his rock, pulling him across the bridge, bringing him inside. To his surprise, once Kel had pulled the creaking door ajar, the sweet sound of a violin being played by experienced hands filled his ears allowing him to feel a sense of happiness unlike the usual happiness stemming from dark humor and morbid tales made light by the narrator of said stories. "Agatha, I'm back!" excitement lacing the words escaping his lips.

"'Bout time, I thought you weren't coming back. I was a day away from asking the caravanners to try and track you down, or at least your body," she smiles at her familiar guest returning. "As you can see I found someone who could go out and get not only some sheet music, but this beauty!" she exclaims, holding out her violin in pride.

"I could hear it from across the wastes," the boy, in comparison to his hostess, pays a compliment to the lady, for her musical prowess did not go unnoticed by Kel. "Who helped you? Also, how long ago was this?" He asks as he starts for his belongings lying inside of the locker, his fingers running along the cool metal, feeling his rifle for anything being out of place, an action he had grown accustomed to.

The elder nearly started to cry, tears welling in happiness that has been foreign to her since her husband had passed, "There was this lady who came over nearly a day or so after you left, and get this, she thought that this was Three Dog's place. I think she was going to kill me," her tale followed by an innocent chuckle.

Kel's eyebrow over his white eye raises in curiosity, "do you remember what she looked like?" He looks around for anything missing, in case the stranger had taken anything from the old lady, his eyes widen, the scoped revolver that had belonged to her husband to hunt and fend off enemies. "Agatha, what happened to Blackhawk?" he asks referring to the missing revolver from its usual display case.

"Well, I couldn't just give my thanks, she went through so much for so little and she had herself a pistol just like my husband's, so I thought it was the least I could do to give her a better weapon. Plus, it wasn't seeing any use just lying around." She smiles her usual smile similar to that of a grandma, even more wrinkles forming along with her already wrinkled features, leathery skin folding together.

Seeing the lady, he had visited with over the past few years, in such a state of pure joy puts a smile across the face of the man who had recently lost control of himself. "I'm glad to see you in such good spirits, I just wish I could have been here to see the girl who had recovered the violin and given her my thanks along with anything I could have given her for her service." A silence falls between the pair as Kel starts to think of the talk with Eulogy Jones, then it hits him, "you never said what the lady looked like."

Agatha gets an assuming look about the boy, thinking he was getting lonely without a girl in his life, "Well, you're in luck youngster, she looks about the same age as you. I think you'd like her, she had shiny black curls, and the greenest eyes on what's left of this planet. That's all I can remember, aside from her having a pet dog with her, and not one of those hairless beasts, more like a cattle dog."

Kel's eyes widen, his heart racing in anticipation of Agatha's answer, "do you by chance know where she was headed to after she left?"

She shakes her head gently, no words needed as to why she did not know, the violin clearly having been her center of attention once it was brought to her. Kel nodded once, understanding the situation, _only thing left is to recheck Megaton, maybe I'll be able to catch her there getting supplies or something_. His thoughts forming from the words of a slaver with nothing to gain from helping Kel. Seemingly able to read his mind Agatha changes the topic, "Enough of this mystery woman, let me warm up one of the mirelurk cakes waiting for you and fetch an iced-cold bottle of Nuka-Cola. How does that sound?" her motherly instinct kicking in ass she heads to the half-kitchen half-living room.

"That sounds great, Agatha," he says passively, making his way to an old rusted chair placed on one side of the scrap table, the all to familiar feeling of the rust on his palms strangely soothing. Pulling the chair up to the table, a plate with a freshly oven-heated mirelurk cake at the center, served to him with a cap less bottle of Nuka Cola. "Thank you, you have done so much for me and there never seems to be an end to your kindness," the man says with a choked voice.

Agatha puts her hand on his shoulder, comforting the clearly hurting man, "Kel, you have been nothing but helpful since my husband saved you all those years ago. I don't know what this girl means to you or what you went through in the past ten days looking for her, but I know you are in pain, physical and emotional. Just keep holding onto your persistence son, you'll find her, it's only a matter of time, if she's in the area you just need to get out there and look smarter, not harder." Her words not only wise, but causing an emotional response from the two, a tear falling from the scarred man's good eye next to the chipped plate the cake resided upon, "I know you have to of heard the stories on the radio about her, but if she is the same girl you have talked about then she'll be kind to you, and hopefully welcoming to an old friend."

The reassurance cheers the young man enough to finish eating the meal prepared by the closest person he could consider a mom. "Thank you, again, Agatha, in the morning I'm going to head out and try Megaton, hopefully she'll have been through there or someone that may know where she might be," his words followed by a mouthful of rich, flavorful mutated crab cake washed down with the cold cola, a slight tingle tickling his throat.

…

Muscles stretch, lungs expand with a morning yawn, an eye dilates, all while a body makes its way out of under a blanket on a spare bed that kept it warm the night prior within the house of an elderly lady. The owner of the body groans away the pain from the nearly two weeks that had passed while undergoing a fruitless adventure. Aches from the bruised shoulder blade to the pulsing gunshot wound come and go as the male's body, that could tell a story with the scars riddling it, slips into the now iconic grey-clad stealth suit and cowl. Slinging the small backpack over one of his shoulders, yet under his cowl, the grey ghost makes his way to the door with only the sound of a maintenance check of the sniper rifle the man wielded being heard. Satisfaction, as per usual, the rifle had been just as it was before he laid his head to rest that night, and with that exceptional test the door before the man was slowly opened with eager hands to start the next part of the current journey. Sunlight creeps over the horizon as dawn approached, as quickly as he opened the door, he exited and closed the door as to not wake the man's hostess earlier than need be. The rifle sways only slightly to keep moment for the wielder's movement to not be impaired as it carefully makes its way across the bridge and maintaining a southward direction as to not lose itself in the rocky terrain of the wastes it had as a home.

Along with the growing sun to the man's left, the silhouette of a high fenced settlement breaks through the horizon, his right eye taking in the spectacle, the sight of people making this world work for them even in the current condition always manages to astonish him. From within the bag upon the aching back of the man, eight short tones tied to vibrations can be heard, _eight o'clock in the morning_ , the brain of the man takes note and on time like usual the defensive gates of the city screech open as an old jet turbine turns the mechanism that opened the gates. _Crack. Pop. Crack._ The man moans following popping his own neck as if signaling to himself that it was time to find any sort of answers.

Coming upon the town Kel looks from a distance as the inner gate opens. Pale pink blaring in contrast to the grey environment, the pink form gathers detail as it starts towards the path Kel was on, white hair cut in an odd fashion, chocolate brown eyes, high heels unfit to be traveling the wastes, and finishing the awkward ensemble, a slave collar seemingly deactivated. _Clover!_ He realizes just before reaching the gate. _She has to know… that might be where she's headed_.

Kel, a good distance behind the woman, trails her, watching her carefully. "Aw fuck!" the lady in pink exclaims as four voices sounding as if they were coming out of a radio point out the girl and the sound of plasma zipping through the air gives away the unseen threat's identity away. The Enclave. Outnumbered and out gunned the grey-clad man watches as the chase between trained, power armor wielding soldiers chase a scantly dressed woman in heels, with only a sawed-off for defense, begins. Opposing the start of the day, the lungs compress, a sigh bellowing from his lips as he turns away from the presumed death of a former slave, and the aching muscles march to the town they were originally heading to for answers, now distraction free.


	4. Chapter 4: The Shadow and the Snake

Vault Shadows

Chapter 4: The Shadow and the Snake

The saloon door swings open wafting the distinct smell of cigarettes, large amounts of alcohol and the faint smell of grunge from Nova in her usual place to the left of the bar known for her solicitations. Wading through thick clouds of smoke, holding his breath as if breathing in would poison him leading him to a quicker grave, finally making it to an empty bar stool in front of the now ghoul-run bar, the radio seemingly still broken with the sound of the instantly recognizable Three Dog fading in and out in static. The clearly out-of-place man in grey gestures for a scotch on the rocks, his drink of choice whenever he visits the saloon, while placing a handful of caps on the table, a clear sign for someone to approach him whether for niceties or to try something lucrative.

"Business has really picked up, huh?" The words make their way from a gravelly throat surrounded by an air of hopelessness about his goal to find The Vault Descendant. Without letting the ghoul answer his remark Kel continues, "I need information, do you know anyone who can get me that?"

Gob finishes pouring the man's scotch on the rocks and places both palms on the bar, nearly in protest, "you know if Moriarty wasn't killed by the girl I'm sure you're looking for right now, he would kick your ass to the curb. You're lucky I'm more forgiving than that old bastard." The ghoul takes a shot of vodka as if paying respects to the late owner of the saloon, with a grunt after taking the shot the ghoul continues as Kel had, not allowing a response, "if it's information you're looking for about that cold-hearted bitch just ask around, she comes in town on occasion and I'm sure at least one of these smooth-skins knows something."

The aching, scarred man tries not to take offense of those words on behalf of the woman he has been searching for since her debut on GNR, finishing his scotch he turns in his stool, his muscles contracting visibly sculpting under the fabric of his suit. A low groan comes from the man as he lifts himself from the stool, his eye making notes of the people around the bar more interested now with Gob not handing over any knowledge the ghoul might have known. To the left of the bar, drinking alone, was the visibly hard mercenary Jericho; however, his guise of being this hard ass who was not fazed by much was trumped by him being the caretaker for a young girl who had brought out the man's soft side more so than he would readily admit. To the right of the bar within the lounge area, nearly clouded by smoke, sat a young blonde who had moved here not to long ago in hopes of building a life that was safe and stable in hopes her family, her brother namely, would follow in her footsteps from there original home set-up on a crumbling highway. Beside the woman, a table away, was an even more out of place than the man scanning the room, sat a man in a white three-piece with his trilby sitting neatly on the table beside him, _He is clearly not from around here, one of Tenpenny's men, it must be._

Following that thought the menacing man turns to Gob and nods to assure that the ghoul-owner was on the side of the man who may be making quite the scene if this goes south in a hurry, knowing Kel's reputation at the bar it just might. The floor creaks under the presence of the man out on a mission, he plants his body in the chair adjacent to the man in white's, taking one of the man's cigars from a box he left on the side table. "You don't mind, do you?" The man asks only for formality, he had no intention of not lighting the cigar if he had minded, "I see you are clearly from a more refined establishment than this rust bucket, why are you here? Wait, wait, before you answer that I have a couple other questions that are much more important to my being here than you may be able to answer." His words making a great pace from his lips as if time was of the essence and he had no desire for idle chit chat.

The man in white is taken out of his element "Sure, I don't see why- ".

Kel cuts him off almost as soon as the man agrees to answer his questioning, "So, I'm assuming you're Mister Burke? That old chicken shit Tenpenny's right hand man. Good gig huh? No doubt you have been around these parts for a little bit, I need any information on that escaped vault dweller that you can give me," the experienced man watches the man who is clearly in a sense of awe.

"W-well I know a little bit but," his demeanor finally readjusts to the usual slime ball behavior anyone that works for Tenpenny is known for, "in order for me to divulge that kind of information, I would need something from you. You aren't the only one looking for that girl and I can't be giving someone else the knowledge I possess."

The contrast man in grey sneers, "what do you want, filth?" His attitude getting more and more disgusted with the man in his presence wishing to put lead between the man's eyes

"Now, now, don't you want to know about your damsel?" The rat of a man grins as his words make Kel sit upright in his chair, "that's more like it, now all I need you to do is rid my master's horizon of this eye sore of a- ". Cutting off the words emitting the man in white was a fist held as tight as the teeth that were gritted by the man throwing the punch.

Spit and blood fly from the man's jaw from the sucker punch thrown by the man he had just made the request to. Kel stood tall over the still sitting man before grabbing the cowardly man's face and slamming his head into the wall of the bar denting the metal, followed with another shot to the jaw with placement mimicking that of the first blow. The assault was watched by all bar goers, even the town sheriff, Lucas Simms, whom was called as soon as the grey clad man made his way to the seat aside the man in white's.

The booming voice of the sheriff broke through the crowd that had formed around the scene, "Kel, enough! Leave Mister Burke alone, as far as I'm aware of that was an unwarranted attack and you can't be making scenes like that!" The sheriff grabbed the menacing figure by the arm, as he pulled the man from the bar in an effort to make it seem as if he were detaining the man, Lucas whispered to the nominal detainee, "I have been trying to bust Burke on anything to kick him out of this town, just give it time, you don't want The Regulators like they do that vault girl I heard you been looking for." The words from Simms were a message to the man, with Simms being the sheriff in order to keep his status he could not be seen with the man who had quite the reputation for fighting with drunkards prying for information on the scarred man's past.

With an uncommon air of sincerity, the shadow-like man turns to the sheriff, "thank you for that, Lucas, I was getting nowhere."

The words were not misplaced for the sheriff gave a winning smile, "just doing my job, now you do yours and hopefully you aren't late with helping your friend, now get outa here." The smiling sheriff lets him go at the entrance of the town after marking where the regulators seem to run their operations, The Regulator HQ.

…

Scratching his scabby skin, a scavenger prowls the entrance of the scrapyard, an oddly hot and humid day for the irradiated DC wasteland. The weak lungs of the scavenger heave as he coughs, his diaphragm mustering what strength it had to keep the man breathing as he looked upon the ruined scrapyard littered with not only trash but a few corpses of raiders, a few weeks old by now. The sickly scavenger's stomach grumbles as his mind tries to conjure up the last time he had ate anything, looking over the corpses the man wars between survival and morals, the thought of consuming another human weighing heavily on his conscious. _Must live_. The only words coming to the man's mind as he looms over the freshest looking corpse out of the band of dead raiders.

The crosshair of a scope sway to-and-fro as a figure perched upon a rock overlooking the scrapyard scouts the area when a unforgettable sight meets his single eye. A near ghoulish state of a feral scavenger creeping over a body of a raider who had once chased him through that exact scrapyard. Audible disgusted sounds escape the lips of the sniper whilst watching the patchy haired individual tear away at the corpse of a pale raider corpse contrasted only by the purple mohawk upon the deceased female raider's head. The urge to vomit nearly overtakes the shadowy sniper, but before he releases the contents of his stomach he ceases the ghastly sight by narrowing in on the head of the scavenger seemingly turned zombie, the finger of the assassin tightens on the trigger allowing the firing pin to strike the primer on the tail end of the casing, sending a .308 down the long barrel of the rifle encased in flame. A ball of fire bursts from the end of the rifle, directed by the muzzle brake above and to the sides keeping stability and accuracy at a constant. The lead bullet escapes the barrel, whirling through the air in the direction of the scavenger looming over the corpse, as quick as the lead left the barrel it enters the skull of the depraved man, ripping through the skin, shattering the plate of his skull, and finally bursts out through the forehead of the flesh consuming scavenger. Barely visible through the scope, grey brain matter follows the bullet out of the giant exit wound formed by the lead ripping through the cranium of the now lifeless man. Unable to resist any further Kel rips off his mask before heaving his breakfast on the rocks beside him at the site of a non-feral ghoul eating another human whom had been long since deceased.

Making his way from his perch Kel takes out a piece of dark chocolate to ease his stomach before reequipping his mask and approaching the entrance of the scrapyard where he had just dispatched a cannibal. Reaching the corpse of the flesh consuming man, Kel takes a deep breathe as he starts the arduous task of looting the corpses. The scavenger, to the assassin's surprise was actually carrying a lunchbox filled with a freshly prepared meal completed with a purified water which turned the man's stomach even more, realizing the scavenger was specificaly out to eat human flesh. Taking what few valuables that the corpses held, Kel takes note of what he had claimed. With the corpses now laid in a pattern trademark to Kel when he looted corpses, their shirts pulled over their faces and a large 'X' marked on the stomachs of those already searched, the man now goes over the spoils of the search, first the lunchbox with a brahmin steak sandwich, fancy lad cakes and a purified water, next was a handful of bobby pins from many of the raider's hair, thirty-four caps in total, one frag mine, and finishing off the pile, a blood bag that matched Merrick's blood type, O positive. Grinning at his newly found possessions he loads up his small pack and readies himself to start up his journey again after filling his stomach with the contents of the lunchbox replacing the breakfast lost by the early encounter.

…

Tactfully, Kel looks over the hill he had come upon, on the hill mirroring his resides a building with some free range brahmin roaming on the hind side of the relatively flat hill, approaching the hill were seven men all sporting the iconic duster and cowboy hat. There was one; however, that did not dawn the hat, instead wearing an eye patch covering an eye afflicted with similar scarring, although more recent, to that of the sniper who is observing the group of men. The man with the eye patch had an all too familiar pompadour just with the sides and back shaved down: Kel feels his face as he watches the man through his scope, both the men shared scars on the same side of their faces, the only difference being that the man with the eyepatch was clearly missing his eye and the only scars on him were that of Deathclaw compared to Kel's eye still there, just white. Then, as the man with the eye patch turns his face in the direction of the sniper the eye behind the scope widens in shock, his skin turning white as if seeing a ghost that had haunted him throughout his childhood, _Butch_.

Emotions explode inside the man, each individual emotion trying to take hold of the man, fighting for attention after seeing that cretin not only made it out of the vault, but was under the guise of a regulator, the polar opposite of what the man was known for in the past. Sliding down the back slope of the hill, anger takes over the man gripping his rifle as if it were the throat of the unpleasant reminder of the pain he had endured from the fury of that man with similar scars. The anger burns through the grey-clad man's flesh, pain ripping around the scars littering his body with his facial scars and eye being the roaring flame that sourced the pain. Gritting his teeth, seething with a foamy saliva dripping from the maw of the survivor, _Why him? Why now? I search for her and he is here! Fuck!_ The infection of anger grasps tightly on his mind afflicting him unlike any of his experiences with that immoral being wearing that leather duster and eye patch.

…

Finding time to be alone outside the small dining hall, where Alex was celebrating her tenth birthday, Kel was fiddling with his very own Pip Boy that he had received the day prior on his own birthday that no one, not even his father Officer O'Brian, had been in attendance to.

Following the familiar beeping of the intercom and a conversation between Alex and her father, the young boy gets nervous to be seen by the girl that was about to leave the room given away by the sound of the mechanical door screeching open. Raven black curls bounce into sight as she leaves the room, too excited about some surprise that was awaiting her in the reactor room to look in the direction of her secret admirer, watching her play with her new Pip Boy 3000 and a vintage Grognak the Barbarian magazine that could only have been a gift from Amata, Alex's best friend and Overseer's daughter. Kel's cheeks flushed with a deep pink realizing that he was technically spying on the girl with emerald eyes as she made her way to the basement of the vault.

A deep, soothing tone addresses the young Kel, "why not go and talk to my daughter? I'm sure she would love to hear from you, especially on her birthday." The tall man dawning a neat lab coat over his jumpsuit, hair as black as his daughter's, and eyes not all that similar to her own, clearly a trait from her late mother rather than father. James crouched to next to the ten-year-old his words of wisdom sticking with the boy, "You have to be the one to put yourself out there or else you will continue to be walked on by people, this world can be unforgiving, there is no time for what ifs."

The black eyes on the boy widening with both surprise and happiness due to someone giving him not only positive attention but the push he needed to try to be the catalyst in starting a conversation with the girl he had wished to try and talk to for years. With James parting toward the reactors, Kel started to muster his confidence, finding different ways to approach the girl in conversation, and as if on cue to ruin everything a smug pompadour sporting boy exits the dining hall with his two punks that would eventually form the gang that would infect the vault with their shenanigans, Butch DeLoria, Wally Mack, and Paul Hannon Junior.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here boys? The Ghost of the Vault has a crush on that dumb girl." Butch says in a mocking tone, followed by the insulting laughter of the other two boys in his company.

The boosted confidence of the boy inciting him to react, "Shut up Butch, you're just a punk who doesn't know which arm his Pip Boy is on. Which is it? Left, or right?" The words fueled by raw emotion flying from his lips as if they had a mind of their own. The insults making even the two compatriots of Butch laugh in amusement at his expense only furthering the anger that Butch had been feeling for the normally sheepish boy.

"Now you're gonna get it," the young DeLoria's words tied to a small fist bulleting for Kel's left cheek, and with the sucker punch landing a leathery vault suit met cold steel flooring. Butch, now towering over the boy who had stood his ground for the first time, began to let out his aggression upon the black sheep.

"Hey, what's going on out there?" The voice of the only officer that had attended the birthday boomed from the dining hall, "You boys cut it out!" Officer Gomez says as he picks up the antagonizing child by the collar and putting him aside before aiding the now bruised and battered Kel, "Are you alright, Kel?" The words sincere in tone, "get out of here, I'll take care of Butch," Officer Gomez gives the boy a smile as if everything would be ok.

Following the assault, Kel runs to his room and locks the sliding door behind him, sobbing, all the confidence instilled in him with that talk with James fleeting with each tear falling from the boy's face, setting the tone for the next six years until his escape from that hell hole. The last tear slips from his cheek and off his chin.

…

The final mix of anger and sadness fled from the scarred man's body with a tear that had fallen from his chin landing upon the rocks beside the mask that had been thrown to the grown during his disturbed state. _No more, I need answers_. Kel's expression fades from hate and anger to that of a state of apathy and impassivity. Steeling himself, the Ghost of the Vault hides his mask under his cowl's cape, picking up his rifle and making his way over the shallow hill toward the headquarters of the 'righteous' regulators that who, now, were just as corrupt as any group of raiders in his eye.

The seven regulators exit the head quarters as the man with an unimpressed look plastered on his face approaches, "Wait a second?" The gruff yet still annoying voice utters as the two scarred men cross paths, "Ghosty, is that you?" Butch asks feeling his own facial scars while examining the scars upon the man opposite of him as if looking in a mirror.

The gravely voice of the ghostly figure addresses the former Tunnel Snake, now regulator, "Long time no see, Butchy Boy," the words almost a display of aggression towards the regulator. "New Jacket?"

DeLoria sneers at Merrick as if they were innocent kids again, "You're lucky you aren't on the list or I'd take my time dropping you right here, right now. I'd still be rockin' those old digs if not for that bitch stealing them and leaving me for dead. How did you get even more ugly than before?" Butch spits in his direction.

Kel spits back, "same way I'm assuming you got yours, only I still have my eye. Looks like you and I are both ugly, only my personality isn't also shit. Learn which arm the Pip Boy is on yet?" Kel's snarky remark is followed by a smug look while showing off the arm where now only a white scar calls home rather than a Pip Boy.

"Well shit, you can get them off after all. Ole Stanley doesn't know shit apparently," the former Tunnel Snake maintains his composure not showing any reaction towards the insults. "Enough chit chat, what in the fuck are you doing over in these parts of the wastes, around my people?" His question nearing a demand for the information.

"Alex, I was tipped off that the regulators might know where she might be," Kel reveals his intentions with a soft tone.

Butch chuckles, "after all these years still pining over that dike? Haven't you heard? She's a monster now, kills just about everyone that tries to interact with her, she might just throw you at some deathclaws like she did with me. Crazy bitch." Butch's expression as he talks about the Vault Descendant mirrors his tone of distain and hatred.

The lip of the Vault Ghost twitches in primal anger, "I don't care what she's done to you or anyone else in this ruined world, she's not the monster you think she is. Now do you know where she is or not?" The man's fists tighten, the leather of his gloves making a sound as they tighten with the fist.

Seeing the amount of emotion within the other one-eyed man's words reminds him of how strong he feels for his lover, "look, I know how you feel right now, I can't tell you where she is exactly, we don't know. I also can't tell you where we are going, that regulator business." The sympathetic tone taking Kel off guard, "Hey Puke, keep looking and hopefully you are right, for her sake."

Kel nods to the other former vault dweller as Butch makes his way South while the ghost finds his way into the building known as the headquarters. The sound of the worn metal door scraps on the wooden porch at the front of the building, entering the rugged two-story building, a cowboy hat wearing female greets the man, "good afternoon, my name is Sonora Cruz, leader 'round these parts. How can I be of assistance?" Her winning smile hitting Kel like a refreshing breath of air after dealing with the bully of his past.

The athletically built man takes a seat at a table to chat with head regulator, "I don't know how well you could help me, but I am looking for someone. I was told that your people might know something about their whereabouts."

"Well what's the name? We might just know something about them, we like to keep raps on people around the wastes," she asks as she turns on her primary terminal where she keeps her records.

Reaching up, Kel scratches his head in a nervous manner, "She's the girl that radio host has been talking about lately," Kel plays his cards in the way of an innocent individual with no real knowledge as to what he is getting himself into.

Sonora gives the girl a look of curiosity, "Now, why are you looking for the girl that's swiftly working her way to a new title; Harbinger of War?"

"Well, I kinda had a run in with her and similarly to one of your men, it ended with deathclaws," the man outlines the scars stretching across his face from the bottom of the right side of his chin up over his mouth and through the left portion of his face, damaging his eye. Kel smiles on the inside as the lie about his scars hits home with the regulator's leader as her curious look turns to one of a pained lover whose partner had experienced a similar fate.

"I'm sorry to hear that, I'm not going to waste much more of your time, we don't have a location for her on record or else we would have knocked down her door instead of setting up an ambush near southwestern D.C.," the lady reveals, not knowing just who she was talking to, thinking he was just some funnily dressed waster with a bad run in with the Vault Descendant. "If I were you, I'd let the professionals take care of everything, no need to get yourself in any more trouble with her." Cruz ends with another winning smile and goes for a handshake as the man stands from his chair.

Kel takes her hand, "I'll keep that in mind, you people are doing the work of angels," his words hurting him to say, but he hides the pain with a mirroring smile to that of his hostess before making his way from the hub of 'righteousness'.

…

The Brass Lantern, not as nice an establishment as the other bar in Megaton; however, with an open bar less than desirable people stay away, allowing regulars and settlers to go unbothered, enjoying their meals. Aside one of the Children of Atom, a bowl of noodles is being silently slurped up by a grey figure, two days having passed since his sit down with Sonora Cruz the man begins thinking of what his next step should be with finding the girl that had been just out of reach so many times now. While the noodles disappear into the pursed lips of the man, now plagued with a heavy five o'clock shadow covering half of his facial scars, he spots an odd individual he had not seen around the small town throughout the past three years and some change he has spent in the wastes.

Walking into the gated community the feminine figure hobbles down the stairs that lead to the center of the town, blood visibly making its way down the outer thigh as a gloved hand grips the upper hip above the blood trail. The mysterious person's skin grows pale as they make their way further and further down to the slope, amber eyes look around trying to take in a last picture while still conscious. Meeting their eyesight to the right is a brahmin being taken care of by a man not paying any mind to the seemingly bleeding out mercenary, then a door to a clinic, a group of visibly mad individuals standing in a pool of irradiated water surrounding a nuke, and finishing the last picture of the conscious mind, a man in all grey standing from a bar and leaving his food, making an effort to catch the stranger that has started to collapse. The last thing the fading amber eyes see, one black concerned eye contrasted by a scarred white closing the distance between his and theirs.

Kicking open the clinic door, Kel ignores the normal distasteful comment given by Doc Church to anyone who enters his clinic, "Not now Church, she needs medical assistance now!" The demanding man exclaims as he carries an unconscious and bleeding body to one of the cots, "I don't know what has caused the injury, maybe gunshot, maybe explosive. She just walked into town." Kel looks over the amber-eyed, short black hair cut with a fade and some grey streaks barely visible on the sides of her shaved head though she is clearly only a few years older than her savior. The man watches as the doctor goes through his routine of finding all wounds, patching them, and then hooking them up to fluids after administering a few stimpak to the site of the wounds, in this case five stimpak were needed to be used in order to properly aid in the repairing of the shrapnel wounds across her body, concentrated near the hip of the woman and scattered through her torso and thighs.

Walking back into the clinic, Kel makes his way to the back room where the mystery girl was being kept, his arms filled with a few supplies for a small campout, for him, he has bought three purified water bottles, two ready-to-eat meals, and for the woman, fancy lad cakes, a bar of dark chocolate and a Nuka Cola Quantum. The supplies being for when she wakes to hopefully help ease from her unconsciousness. The doctor says nothing except that it may be a few days until she wakes, his words met with a stare of annoyance, he did not care how long it would take, no one looked out for her and she made it all the way down the stairs with not so much as one person asking her state of health. This fact fumed Kel, _No one should be neglected like that_ , he thinks to himself as the memory of when he was stung by a giant radscorpion and no one helped him until he was found by Agatha's deceased husband and saved from the fate of the wastes. He would wait there as long as it would take until he knew that he had saved a life as if he were repaying a debt to the world through this woman whose amber eyes flickered with unconscious life from time to time.

…

Three days pass with the man remaining held up in the clinic sleeping in an extremely uncomfortable chair he called home throughout the past seventy-two hours. Kel's eyelids slip shut as midnight rolls nearer, his hand resting on the cot by the still unconscious woman.

Amber eyes meet a dim light in an alien room to her, she looks around in curiosity and with the thought of where she might be entering her mind, she remembers the last image she had seen before falling unconscious when her eyes meet the unconscious, lightly snoring, body in the chair adjacent to her cot. The woman continues looking about the room that the pair are in and realizes that the room they are in is separate from the rest of what she assumes is the clinic she had noted before going down. In her surprise she feels the man's arm on the edge of her cot and she coyly interlocks her hand with that of the man sleeping near her and snuggles into the warm arm keeping from waking the man from waking as she gets comfortable. The lady whispers in the right ear of the unconscious man as she begins to slip back into slumber, "thank you".

The one working eye of the man sleeping in a chair starts to wake, vision slowly growing to its full potential following a drawn-out yawn and a stretch. Reaching up in his stretch, Kel blushes lightly as he notices a smaller hand being held within his that he had now started to raise, waking the owner of the other arm, "shit! I'm sorry about that." The man's voice out of character for his usual quiet demeanor.

A soft voice, comforting to the ear escapes the muted ruby lips of the bed ridden woman, "don't stress yourself, darlin'. I've been through more than a handsome man stretching my wounds." Her voice carrying a slight wince of pain as her slight Bostonian accent meets the ears of the man beside her bed. "Why did you help me? A total stranger with nothing to gain for yourself?"

Kel tries to compose himself and not seem like a creep, "well it's a long story, let's just say I was in your shoes at one point and no one helped me when I was in need. I guess you could call it repaying a debt to the world." The cliché of his words hurting as they left his throat as though the embarrassment was more painful than the exploded girls wounds.

"Well, now I assume I owe you a debt," her suggestive tone slightly off putting to the man, "how long have I been out?" The girl asks as she props herself up on her palms, her eyesight leveling to her savior's, her amber eyes now full of life as they focus on his one black eye.

The grey dressed man stands while extending a hand to aid her in standing, "it has been three days since you stumbled into Megaton. Where did you come from, and how did you get injured like this?"

Standing up weakly next to the man, "I was heading to a riverboat landing down south by D.C. and all of a sudden as I passed nearby a broken overpass I saw a couple of hoodsies gunning down some raiders while dressed like a gangster and a pirate. Craziest thing I ever saw, but then as I was trying to scav the area that they had been running down, the floozies got caught in a serious fire fight with some regulators. It must've been something serious, those cowboy lookin', goodie two shoes were armed with some serious power. Before I knew it, the car nearest to me was struck by a stray missile during their all-out brawl, I didn't even see the rest of the fight with the explosions sending my ass over a ledge where I was safe for the most part aside from the metal littering my sorry self." The girl's voice aggravated by the encounter with the two females that indirectly lead to her injury and with a huff of frustration the lady shakes away her annoyance, "I'm sorry I never got your name, my name is Helena, Helena Everette."

The name matching the woman as though she was meant for it, "Well, you can just call me Kel," the universally distant man keeps his last name to himself not sure if he can divulge his last name to the girl he had been making sure would pull through. "Helena, with you making it through as glad as that makes me, I should be going. I have someone I need to find," his face going back to the slate of apathy that had plagued his face over the passed few days as his train of thought slips back on trying to find Alex.

"Wait, I might be able to…" Helena's words met with silence as the body of the man makes his way from her side, out of the clinic, "… I might be able to help…"

…

Near the Southwest side of D.C. binoculars are lifted granting sight to the user of a man in the distance scouring a fallen overpass by a building with signs of explosions from rockets strewn about the scene of a hard-fought battle. The man in the sights of the binocular wielding individual visually sighs as presumably no signs of the person he was looking for could be found, curiosity filling the eyes of the watcher. With the last of the area looked over by the man being spied upon, he fixates a small device onto his belt before disappearing into the surroundings as if he were pulled from their reality. Following the man camouflaging himself the binoculars fall from the amber eyes that had been hiding behind the telescopic device, _where does he think he's going now?_


	5. Chapter 5: To Catch a Shadow

Vault Shadows

Chapter 5: How to Catch a Shadow

 _Where does he think he's going now?_ Helena thinks to herself after watching the grey clad figure disappear into thin air as if he never existed. Squinting, she can make out a subtle cloud of dust that emits from each step the invisible man makes, too heavy to sneak around without a tell. _Not as sneaky as you seem, huh?_

…

From dawn till about four in the afternoon the west drifting footsteps remain invisible. _Why does he stay cloaked for so long?_ She asks herself while going from cover to cover just to be sure that she isn't found by the ghost she's trying to follow. Looking down at a makeshift map of the wasteland she's explored Helena's eyes widen. _This far west? This is yao guai territory, is he suicidal?!_

As if he knew she lost him while she was looking at her map, Kel's stealth boy fades out and he is seen climbing up on a rock wall and seemingly swallowed by the rocks.

 _Oh no you don't!_ she starts running towards the rocks but doesn't pay attention to the noise she's making and she hears a low growl coming from a trench to her left. She stops herself, rocks and dirt flying around due to her immediate halt. She sighs, thinking she's in the clear before a light shake is felt in the earth below her feet as a large beast makes its way out of the trench. Large yellow teeth bared from the jaws of the irradiated descendant of a bear, the muscles on display due to the lack of fur to cover the beast like its ancestors, and paws that could take off someone's head with a mere swipe.

…

 _Sun pierced through her eyelids, the weather had been nice enough so the lady slept outside under the comfort of the night sky, the sun gave her a welcome awakening from a dreamless sleep. Amber eyes look around trying to find the weapon she had grown accustomed to, a short hunting rifle with her name engraved on the grip and it had a shoddy recreation of a reflex sight and a silencer that she didn't like to use because she preferred people know when she's out for the kill._

 _She stretches, her arms swinging out to her sides and her bust pushing forward tightening her white tee. A long sigh follows her stretch as she gazes her personal combat armor that was identical to her Talon Company counterparts minus the symbol on the chest before heaving the armor around her body that fit seamlessly into the worn leather._

" _Helena. Get the fuck up, what are doing sleeping outside anyway, do you want to die?" the voice emanating from her commander, Jabsco._

" _What got you out of the bunker today Jetty?" Helena pokes fun at her commander as she makes her way to the position of attention._

 _Jabsco scowls but doesn't address the comment, "Rider, yourself and two others are going to go try and track down an unknown vaultie." He says looking fiercely into the woman's eyes, trying to display dominance._

" _No offense Jab, but how do you expect three idiots and myself to find someone that not even you know? And are you talking about that vaultie that Three Dog keeps mentioning on the radio?" she asks in a near defiant tone due to the absurdity of the request._

" _Not that vaultie, all I know is the person we are looking for is a man with a white eye from some sort of accident and a black eye. We don't know where he came from, he doesn't have any markings my intel was able to discern and he for sure does not have a wrist thingy like that vault chick," Jabsco spits out the briefing to Helena._

" _So, what you are telling me, sir, is that we are ghost hunting?" She asks in disbelief that Jabsco would send her on a mission that sounds made-up._

" _No, Captain Everette, we have lost a couple of scouting parties in a specific region and I want you to snuff him out and bring him back to me alive, he has a lot to answer for," he says seemingly betrayed by the unknown man._

" _What if this is that bitch from the vault or even worse a covert Enclave set up that our guys keep stumbling on? We don't have the power to take on either of those forces." Helena's tone clearly displeased with the idea of hunting someone they know nothing about._

" _Captain, enough, this is an order. Rider is going to make sure he gets back alive and you are the best tracker that we have here at Fort Bannister. I will not take no for an answer on this one." The commander states in all seriousness to his subordinate._

 _Jabsco's words seemingly activate a militaristic mindset in Helena and she just simply nods before preparing herself for the mission she believed would not end in anything good for herself or the others._ I need for than four of us for this, I guess I'm glad these guys will listen to me. _She says to herself as she starts walking to the barracks with her short hunting rifle hanging from her right hand._

" _Listen up men, I was told that were about to embark on a mission to track down and find an unknown male with a scar on the right side of his face, one white eye and one black eye." Helena's words accompanied with a sense of disbelief that she was trying to tell her men they were embarking on a ghost hunt._

 _Rider runs his scarred left hand over his short mohawk and looks up from the Chinese assault rifle he was cleaning, "anything else or is that it? Is that all we have to go o-"_

" _How about you shut the fuck up and let me finish telling you about the fucking mission?" Helena snaps, "We know he is somewhere between that shithole Megaton and that old bitch Agatha's place. Or at least we THINK he's there because that's where our scout parties keep disappearing."_

 _A younger male in disbelief puts in his two sense, "Boss, I don't think that is a good idea, who is putting us on thi-"_

 _Helena, getting tired of questions, throws an American assault rifle to the young adult, "Look, Jennings, you know I get my missions directly from ol' Jetty and what he says goes, he's the General. I'm having Cole and Augustine as the vanguard on this expedition and Jennings as our tail end, in case anything goes sour we will know when Cole and Augustine run into anything and if we have something go wrong, you, Jennings are to report straight back to here. If we all start dropping." Her confidence coming back to her as she explains to her team._

 _An older male, even older than Rider who was well into his thirty's chimes in, "Jennings, don't worry I practically spent my entire time here at Talon Company with Helena and I know she will take great care of us," a reassuring hand meets the shoulder of the female Captain, "isn't that right Hela?"_

 _Only a nod is needed before she saddles her men up and gets everyone ready for the ghost hunt._

…

Running from the wild beast Helena finds short cuts through the hilly terrain and passes under a decrepit Captain Cosmos billboard trying to make her way towards the tower in the distance. Earth trembles below her feet as the heavy weight of the yao guai finds a way through the rocky terrain and eventually b-lines straight for the black-haired woman, as the surface flattens.

 _Fuck, fuck, fuck!_ She thinks to herself before she feels the heat of lasers zipping past her and hitting the blood-thirsty bear that is closing the distance between the two.

An old man and three robot henchmen shoot an assortment of energy weapons at the best, the two gutsies shooting a low powered plasma blast, the protectron utilizing its laser and the old man, the merchant Tinker Joe, making what effort he can with his laser pistol.

Once Helena thinks she's in a safe distance where the old man wouldn't easily accidentally shoot her, she turns behind a rock where she brandishes her shortened hunting rifle and unloads into the head of the rampaging beast. It lunges its body at her as in attempt at one last offensive, only to take a .308 through the mouth and out the back of its skull, dropping it to the dirt with a thick thud. The eyes slip to the back of their sockets leaving a lifeless white exposed to the former prey.

The old man's voice breaks the brief cloud of silence, "you shoulda climbed a tree, little lady."

"What the hell would that have done? Let me starve instead of get mauled and then my dead body be a decoration for the tree like a morbid holiday?! Can it, old man." Helena's tone attacking Tinker Joe's words as if he was an ignorant child trying to state a false fact.

"Well excuse me for trying to give friendly advi-," his words cut off by a middle finger as the Captain starts to walk away and reload her rifle.

 _Fuck that was too much for one day. Maybe Tenpenny will let me stay at that hotel, I'm not tempting fate tonight._ Her adrenaline starts to die down as she makes her way to the nearby tower and neglecting to thank the man on purpose. _I can't believe I'm going back into this sleaze pit._

…

" _Hela," the nickname that_ _Cole called her back at the camp before they left. Last time he explained it, it had something to do with the way she fought, he said something about Hela being the name of a goddess of the underworld. Kind of fitting._

 _BIZZIIIIIINNNNNNG!_

 _A seemingly stray bullet takes Helena out of her train of thought and she turns to the right trying to tracking the origin of the bullet that ricocheted off a nearby boulder._

 _From the front of the group a female's voice breaks the silence. Augustine screams for her fellow vanguard member, Cole, "NO! No, no, no, no!" She initially screams, turning to muttering as she reaches his side and tries to get Cole to a safe position._

 _The older male in his late thirties shoves her off of him and demands her to get herself to safety before dragging himself behind a nearby cement pillar from the collapsed highway. He assesses his knee that had been shot just as he was taking a step and had caused him to tear several tendons and rendered his right leg effectively useless. "FUCK! Nice shot, asshole! But you gotta do better to put down this goat!" he yells before readying himself to retaliate with his own flurry of gunshots._

 _Helena breaks composure seeing Cole start to aim. "Stand down you fucking idiot! He wants to kill you!"_

 _Her words not reaching his ears in time until he lets loose a volley of automatic fire. As he begins firing wildly due to the pain and the adrenaline, Augustine tries to run to his side and stop the older man from killing himself and with her efforts a bullet not matching the wild nature of the machine gun fire zips past the three soldiers behind the vanguard and meets Augustine's skull._

 _Rider, Jennings, and Helena all stare in slow motion at the scene. A flash of silver breaking past them, blood projecting from the helmet of the young female, and then silence._

 _Cole fell back to the ground, the real world hitting him like he hit the Earth when his knee was blown out from under him._ What have I done? _The thought haunts him as he lay paralyzed in regret and blood slowly fills his pant leg. The visage of the young girl turned cyclops burning him unlike anything else he had seen under the Talon Co. since this was directly HIS fault in his eyes._

 _Jennings, disobeying his original orders to turn and run when shit hit the fan, came running from the back and limited the exposure to the right side of the remnants of the fallen highway, unknowing of the whereabouts from the second sniper shot and how it was just behind him when the bullet was fired. The youngest of the group making it to the Captain from the back stumbles trying to catch his breath. Rider, having gone to try to aid Cole is not there when Helena meets up with Jennings._

" _What the fuck did I tell you Je-!" She is unable to finish before the rooky interrupts._

" _I needed to ma-," only gurgling and blood follow his words._

 _Slowly unveiling from invisibility, a serrated trench knife takes form in the mouth of the young soldier who had been followed from the rear flank by the cloaked target. Effortlessly, the blade is unsheathed from the back of the boy's skull as if being drawn from the hip it belonged to._

 _A scream of fear erupted from the ruby lips of the Captain as the ghost they had been hunting flickered in and out of existence behind the dead rooky. This distracts Rider, causing him to neglect his duties to aid Cole, and instead he tries to run to Helena's side only for two strategically placed 10mm rounds to incapacitate him by hitting metallic points in the armor he was wearing and knocking his wind out._

" _If you know what is good for you and your men, you will stop chasing me. And while you're at it tell Jabsco to get off my case. He will never win this game of cat and mouse when he doesn't even realize that he is the mouse." The grey clad figure says before recloaking and disappearing into the environment._

…

Smoke slips up to the ceiling and escapes through the vents as Helena lays in the same bed she rented from Tenpenny a year ago with Rider after the rest were lost in that ambush. The butte of the cigarette betwixt her lips getting clenched with her teeth cause it to fall out her mouth. _Goddamn it! I cannot believe that he of all people saved me! And I cannot believe I was hit with feelings for him doing so!_

"Why is this happening!" Hela scream out in her room, throwing an antique alarm clock across the room, her amber eyes seemingly burning. "He killed them a year ago, I lost my sanity, and almost left on the sketchy boat just to get away from my failures! And my failure saves me!" Her breathing not deepening nor slowing, matches her passion and confusion. _What would I even do if I tracked him down and confronted him anyway? Kill him? Thank him? Demand for my life in the Talon Co. back? He can't give me anything I need! Whatever, I need answers… I just hope he has some or at least he doesn't remember me._

Stepping into the shower, Hela begins to rinse her stiches that had partially ripped after the bear chase. The water slipping down her shoulders slowing gains a rust color once they pass her slightly wide hips and by the time the water reaches the drain it has fully took a red tint from her reopened wounds.

 _Whenever I get healed up enough, I'm coming for you Kel. Now that I have a name, maybe, just maybe I will have a better chance at hunting you down._


End file.
